Main page...

Warning:
This site cannot be viewed properly using Microsoft Internet Explorer!
Download the Firefox browser now for free!

Known bugs that IE 6 has:

Shows wrong background color in transparent PNGs.

Doesn't pass a referer, resulting in showing the main page instead of the page you were trying to visit from outside, like from Google.

Misinterprets the CSS resulting in wrong font in the menu.

Some are fixed in IE 7/8, but for the best web experience and safety, I still recommend Firefox.

Faster Connectivity!

It finally happened. The wireless antennas got upgraded giving this website a 50-fold boost in upload speed! Your browsing experience here has improved to the levels expected from services hosted on dedicated servers. Almost every full image will load in seconds, provided you have a fast connection.
Go visit
the gallery
and see for yourself.
A quick note about handheld devices: All gallery pages now detect phones and tablets automatically and present a whole new optimized template. No side-scrolling required. The first tap loads the medium preview, the second one links to the full picture.

Color Deficit Simulation

Here, on the whole ZWZ website. Visit the filter form to pick a color blindness type and see it in action everywhere on this server.
Be advised that the SVG matrix doesn't allow me to mimic the real deficiencies exactly which means that sometimes, the Ishihara plates will be somewhat readable even with the filter on.
Enjoy! I think that tritanomaly produces a neat dreamy effect for the casual observer, so do try that.

The Gallery Upgraded

I have been working on this website's underlying code to stabilize most
of the known issues concerning its non-permanent link system.
Content writers all around the web expect to be able to copy a URL
and visit the same content later or from a different place.
This concept has, sadly, eluded the ZWZ Gallery for quite
some time.
But I have finally overhauled the link system to provide a better stability.
The thumbnail view is now numbered in a reversed manner - the first,
newest page that you see when visiting, actually has the highest URL number.
When more pictures are added, the UI numbering will shift against the URLs,
but the same pictures will remain visible under these URLs.
This should help in all sorts of linking.
And there is more: The full picture views have been upgraded to be hash-coded,
rather than path-coded. This will keep the links working virtually forever,
no matter how I choose to improve the directory order.
Nice faux URL rewriting has been implemented too. It is not a real rewriting
per se since the system is already designed with it in mind, but it makes
especially pasted URLs look neat.
The puzzle is now working reliably, the link is now the same on both platforms.
Upon completion, you get the full view of the gallery window, as opposed to
just a raw JPEG before.
The old links will remain working for a while, but they are being phased out of
search engines and their functionality is not guaranteed. I will probably also
disable the directory listing because it just attracts leechers.
Please enjoy the new gallery.

Kill ACTA

This appeal is now obsolete. Expand Article
The Demand Progress code has been removed because it was not HTML-valid and its message was outdated.

IPv6 and Permanently Online!

This website will now run better. It is equipped with a second backup server and is accessible using both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.
To test your IPv6 capability, visit ipv6.zwz.cz. The basic domain zwz.cz is deploying both record types as we speak.

Mirror moving to Endora.cz

Expand Article
As I strive to keep this site running uninterrupted, yet cheaply, I have to seek out a webhosting service once in a while.
I only pay one service and that one will not delete the files if I cease to pay, it will merely disable upload so that I have the chance to fix the affairs easily.
Some time ago, I found a new promising host, 000webhost.com. I immediately noticed the slow speeds, but I kept using it. Then the real problems began. Once per month, they wiped my files! They claimed it was due to less than 10 visits per month. This was a ridiculous lie. This happened about 4 times, I always re-uploaded the site. But then, they pushed shift to overdrive: They blocked my account saying that I loaded their CPU more than 1000 times and that the account will be unlocked after I purchase a paid plan. I tried to negotiate, but to no avail. They cunningly ignored my point about unjustified action and insisted on me having to pay. Needless to say, I paid them by dust in their face and this complaining blog post.
The mirror has been created on the Czech Endora service which will hopefully be as exemplarily good as the Slovak SZM.

Asus: A can of worms too

Expand Article
I have just finished sorting out another painful computer repair mystery. This one is about a line of today's cutting-edge soundcards - Asus Xonar.
If you have ever attempted to improve your computer's sound output, you might have well found out that there is not much competition. The only basic choices are Creative or Asus. Creative is a lazy behemoth with zero response to the demand for lightweight, yet clear-sounding products. Its non-downloadable CDs full of ballast are infamous. So - the only option is Asus Xonar, right? You bring it home, plug it in and... pray!
A nasty BSODBad_Pool_Caller lurks behind the corner! This dreaded bug is cursed around the globe and the real cause and solution has been unknown - until now.
First things first, the cause is that none of the current 32-bit Asus drivers are able to cope with actively used PAE which happens if the computer has more than 3 GB of RAM along with a 32bit OS.
The solution is a mafia-style choice, neither of the two options is good. You may either
• Disable PAE and limit the machine to using 3.2GB RAM according to this article: KB900524, or
• Install a 64-bit version of Windows which introduces new incompatibilities with both browser plugins and whole applications and possibly other devices.
I suggest to Asus, if anybody from them is reading this now: Fix your drivers!

Electric Bicycle

JPEGComp

I am finally publishing my long-developed and stalled JPEG size reduction program. This software is meticulously crafted to leave all of its competitors in the dust — the options shall surprise even eager Exif users. If you want the ultimate solution for JPEG file size reduction without any further quality loss, download it now.

End of Pictures over FTP

The bandwidth of this server was being constantly raped by leechers over FTP. The pictures are from now only available over HTTP with the 50MB limit.
I apologize to all legitimate users.

Mirrors

You can always find a mirror of this site on at least one of these URLs:

Proven to have high uptime, but it has the 512k file limit. Wallpapers only.

Midnight Commander on the Hero!

You might have noticed that it's a hassle to explore the new horizons of the Android system through a limited ADB command-line. If you want to run a file manager to work with the phone effortlessly, read further.

Unlike most of such projects which focus on supplying a file manager on the phone's display, be it a local filesystem, or a client connected to a computer, this project helps do the opposite thing: Your phone will become a server and you will control it using your computer.
Much of the work needed has been already done, but the final touch of preparing MC for the use on the phone was left for me.Prerequisites:

HTC Hero or another Android phone

Dropbear, get it with MoDaCo ROM. EDIT: Dropbear is now contained in the new MC package.

Now that you have everything, here is how to set it up.
You will need a rooted system with dropbear on your phone, so install the appropriate ROM from MoDaCo. Make sure that it already contains dropbear. The hard way to do this is to just extract all of the dropbear files off said ROM and get them working in your own unflashed handset. This means rooting and probably using the CM 1.4 recovery imageRA Hero Recovery anyway. As you would need to bypass various obstacles with stock ROM, I recommend choosing a good alternative.
Prepare your software. Extract the SDK. Find adb.exe in it. Extract the mc-dbear.part*.rar package in the directory so that there would be one subdirectory mc-inst and the files in it. (WinRAR adds one level of unwanted directory by default.)
Now decide depending on the kind of ROM you have. If you kept the stock, you will have to boot to the "insecure" image that gives root in ADB. If you have MoDaCo, just connect the phone, make sure it does not require any missing drivers (available in the SDK) and run the mc-inst.bat installer.
Follow any of the numerous instructions to connect to dropbear with PuTTY. Here is one more line of code that will map the port for connection over USB to your network:

adb forward tcp:2222 tcp:2222

Run PuTTY, connect to the phone. Enter mc anywhere.

Bumblebees

Good Fanlisting, Sad Owner

I almost forgot I once registered to this Pita Ten fanlisting: nirima.net/pitaten I cannot make the URL clickable though; the owner has an arrogant, blindminded policy of "checking the fan's site periodically and removing the URL if the fanlisting is not linked properly." As you probably know, the ZWZ Page does not run uninterrupted and I also add such link to the Fav Sites section to prevent clutter and ensure fast load times. So I'm sad to announce that this Pita Ten fanlisting cannot be linked here.

Windows: A can of worms

Now for a stress-relief post: I have spent a few days trying to set up a VPN on the Windows Server 2003 machine.
This may seem like a mundane task, but not so according to the Redmond scenario. After reading up that DHCP won't work over VPN (had to assign IPs in the routing service) and neither will IPX/SPX, I finally learnt that to not to cut the internet connection of the client attempting to connect to the server, one has to do a lamer-intensive tweaking on the client side to disable taking over the gateway.
Even after disabling all firewalls, the VPN would not ping reliably, ceasing to work after about one minute. I'm stressing out that everything else worked well so far.
And now for the worst: I noticed that the subnet mask of the RAS is 255.255.255.255 in ipconfig, which is obviously wrong as it suggests a network of only one member. So I edited the registry to force an IP/subnet mask setting for the virtual adapter.
Upon the client connection, the system BSODed! So I had to restore the previous settings.
I also tried to uninstall or update various other net programs I have running, to no avail but more BSODs.
And no, that's not all, as a last-minute hit, the webserver failed with "File is already in use by another process". After examining the log, I finally concluded that ports are actually in use and closed Skype. That was it!
I can't wait to migrate it all to Linux.

Another Server Outage

Another year has passed and the server will be out until August 7th.

Fraud by Multiply.com

A social-networking site reachable on Multiply.com used to be friendly and all when it started. But, as it happens on the internet, it was a money-making plot. Suddenly, you have to pay 19 bucks or your hi-res photos will be deleted in 30 days and counting!
Well, I sort-of expected this, but they are way small to be able to push this scheme, not to mention that they already have ads everywhere on the site. I mean, you could get a straight .com domain complete with webspace for that. What the?!?

FAT32 MP3 Players Bootable!

If you have ever tried to add Windows (in the form of PE) on your Mass-Storage-capable MP3 player,
you might have well found out that it does not boot. Even if you made double-sure that the bootsector
loads NTLDR and all system files are well-configured, it still froze with a black screen.Click here for the full article.

The problem is bound to the inability of the FAT32 bootsector to load NTLDR (a renamed SETUPLDR.BIN in this case) properly to allow it to run. This problem appears on FAT32 drives without the MBR. You may not be able to add this, because your player's firmware is dependent on the current PBR structure.
The ZWZ Page is now the first to introduce a working solution to this problem.
• Get GRUB4DOS.
• Prepare a bootable Windows 98 diskette. Add

sys.com

to the diskette from the computer where you created that diskette.
• Find a computer that makes USB drives along with MP3 MSD players available to DOS. I have tested it with new ASUS boards, these have a decent detection. Just try it with the newest computer that is available. You will need to bring your USB cable for your player and the computer will have to have a floppy drive. If the player is still inaccessible, look for "Legacy USB Support" setting in your BIOS.
• Set the floppy as bootable. If your BIOS supports Boot menu, just use that instead.
Let's assume that your floppy is drive A:. Check if the MP3 player is available at B:. Type

This file can be empty. It is mandatory that it doesn't exist on any other disk in the system.
• Add the needed ZWZ PE system files to the player as well.
• Reboot your computer and invoke booting from the MP3 player.

Scheduled Server Outage

The ZWZ Server will be offline until July 22nd. Use the zdenek.myftp.org link to be redirected to the right mirror whenever you visit this site.
Thank you for your countenance for the past years. The ZWZ Page will be right back.

Scanner Error in Windows 2003 SP2

I was about to upgrade to Service Pack 2 on my Windows Server 2003 machine. It is a useful and, in long run, necessary step.
First, I tried to run the SP2 installer from within Windows. It complained about the bootlogo changed in ntoskrnl.exe. So I restored the file. But it still complained. I finally discovered that the /kernel= parameter must be removed from boot.ini.
But after the installation, which took ages, the system was very unstable. It crashed on every shutdown. It even started crashing on logon, so I uninstalled the SP and the problem stopped.
To get the SP2 working, I integrated the servicepack into the CD and installed a fresh system. It basically worked, no more blue screens (BSOD).
A few days later, I got to installing the scanner drivers. But the software always reported that it can't find the scanner. Its drivers were installed correctly though.
The problem turned out to be in the new version of usbscan.sys that is supposed to fix the printer-scanner-copier issue known from SP1. So I started the ZWZ PE and replaced the older USBSCAN.SYS as the system32\drivers one.
And hooray - the scanner stopped freezing and it's all set! The type is Hewlett-Packard Scanjet 4670.

My Web Album

picasaweb.google.com
You can comment on some of my wallpapers there and download them fast even when my computer is offline.

ZWZ PE

Ever stuck with a non-bootable computer? DOS floppy is not enough? Are you an administrator? Or do you just want to impress your friends? Create your very own ZWZ PE CD!

Dejiko Amidst Flowers

Here is another wallpaper with Dejiko! This will be the last for some time, I don't have many good scans left. But this one should satisfy you anyway.
It is also the most taxing wallpaper of mine ever, as I spent more than one week making it. I'm getting too busy and numb I guess. Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it for you.

As requested by you.

The Media section has been asking for your needs in terms of what should I host. The poll is still running, but I'll post some links to the most desired things here.
Please note that they work during the day in Europe only. So no late-night browsing. Try it in the morning!

New security hole, or not?

Wikipedia linked me to Securityfocus, where I found a description of a supposed DoS vulnerability in Firefox. It is dated to October 5th, 2005. And credited, LOL. Check this out, a part of my searching code on search.zwz.myftp.org:

The maxhits constant essentially limits the amount of found entries when in the iframe mode (Thumbnail on click). I have implemented this far back when not even Firefox 1.0 was out and I discovered the error with Netscape 7.2 (same Gecko core) that failed around the count of 75 iframes. Of course I didn't want to trouble my users, so I added this limit.
That was about one year ago. So why is Tom Ferris taking the credits for this? Because he bothered to mail that always 2nd Securityfocus site?